My favorite part of holiday activities (at any time of the year!) is learning about different traditions students have. When designing activities, the key is to let students be creative and tell the class about themselves.
Small changes can make a huge difference when keeping middle school students focused and on task.
With the added pressure of Back to School Night in person (we hosted virtually last year in a modified format), I decided to stick with what I’m most comfortable with and just teach. In each class, I picked out a quick unplugged activity or discussion to give a truer sense of what a period in my classroom is like. Here are some ideas.
One concept that does need to be explicitly taught is broadcast and receive blocks. I’ve had difficulty getting students to buy into the use of broadcast and receive blocks over “wait” blocks. My hunch is that they’re difficult to understand because of the lack of a visual reaction on the Scratch stage. Unplugged activities to the rescue!
Earlier this year, I shared how I introduce my students to the idea that their computer science skills can be used to create positive change in the world. In honor of #CSEdWeek, I wanted to share our first project – coding a public service announcement!
The fifth grade curriculum I inherited included a pretty prescribed worksheet detailing how to make sprites do specific actions. I quickly became annoyed that I had to repeatedly tell the students to do what was asked first and explore later. Clearly, I was doing it wrong.
